Movie Night
by Mia Vaan
Summary: Post-Avengers. Darcy hijacks Loki's TV for the night so she can watch a movie. Many more of these nights will follow.
1. Night One: Casper

Yes, I know I should be working on _Protectors_ and_ Lullabies_, I know. But I've hit a writing block with the former (I know what's coming next but I can't seem to find the motivation to write it), and I update the latter once a week.

So as those of you who follow me know, I saw _The Avengers_ and _Thor_. After further investigation I discovered the pairing that is Loki/Darcy. And for some reason I grew...fond of it. I don't know how; I'm usually a fan of established pairings, and the occasional OC pairing, but this just...crept up on me. As did this story.

Don't know where the idea came from, but I had fun, so I'm not complaining. Not sure where it'll go yet, but for the time being, I'm just gonna roll with it. New fandom, new ground to work with... Fun!

Disclaimer: I don't own _Marvel_, or its characters. I also don't own any of the movies mentioned (and any books, TV shows and other stuff which might be mentioned) other than on DVD.

Rated T because Darcy is a twenty-something student who has a habit for bad language.

* * *

With her fist inches away from the door, Darcy hesitated.

It wasn't that she was afraid of Loki. In fact, she couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy. He'd only wanted his father's love and attention – which he already had, Thor insisted – not to mention he loathed himself for being a Frost Giant. What a Frost Giant actually _was_, Darcy didn't know. The only Frost she knew was Jack Frost, and he was either a chilly creep from the _Santa Claus_ movies or an incredibly hot teenage rebel from the latest incarnation.

But back to Loki. He reminded Darcy of her own crappy life; growing up with several brothers and sisters – all of whom had proclaimed themselves to be smarter than her – had certainly made her feel like the unfavourite. So she could relate to him. The difference between them was that she hadn't thrown a massive temper tantrum which included trying to destroy one planet and then trying to take over another.

And therein laid her problem.

Loki was still a psycho and an arrogant prick, no matter how tragic his back story was. His punishment for trying to take over the Earth had been banishment; he was never allowed to return to Asgard again. SHIELD had been a little more understanding; after all, half of their ranks were filled with former criminals who had decided to turn good, and they were willing to give him a chance. Unfortunately, Loki was unwilling to join them. That's when Thor stepped in.

Loki's powers were taken from him – much like Thor's own had been almost two years before – and Thor would only give them back if Loki decided to use them for good. Which in Darcy's opinion, just sounded cliché. Of course, Thor never told this to Loki, in order to prevent the God of _Lies_ from simply _lying_ his way out of it. No, Loki had no idea he could get them back. Which just made him more reluctant to turn good.

Many SHIELD agents had tried. All had failed.

The Avengers team had been living in Stark tower for sometime, Darcy included. They all had their private living spaces, which Darcy liked. What she didn't like was that when her TV broke, none of the others were willing to share. Not even Bruce, who was usually nice to her – but he was geeking over the Discovery channel, and she couldn't blame him for that.

Tony was watching some kind of porn flick. Thor and Jane a sappy romance in the space they shared. Steve a documentary on World War 2 (Darcy briefly wondered why he was torturing himself with that). Natasha a martial arts movie which was way too violent for Darcy's tastes. And Clint was watching some medieval archery program.

_Just great_. Darcy bit her lip; she had been excited earlier in the day when she'd discovered that one of her favourite movies was being shown in the evening. She hadn't seen _Casper_ in forever, and had even made herself popcorn for the occasion – most of the time she didn't have the effort to care. And with her TV broke and only minutes before the movie started, she became desperate.

That was how she found herself in front of Loki's door, fist held out ready to knock. Part of her wanted to bolt back to her own quarters and shut herself away, but she really had been looking forwards to this movie...

She knocked.

The girl could almost hear the sigh coming from the other side, before footsteps approached the door – either that, or it was her heartbeat getting louder. She couldn't be sure. _Control yourself, Darcy. Don't let him creep you out. Just treat him like you treat Tony_.

The door opened, and by the look on his face, Loki was expecting his brother or one of the other Avengers. His expression was annoyed and looked ready to unleash a cold or snarky remark. But his expression changed to that of surprise when he saw it was Darcy – dressed in nothing by a baggy t-shirt, a pair of shorts and bat slippers, holding a bowl of popcorn in one hand and a soda in the other.

"What do you want, mortal?" he asked.

Instead of a long awkward explanation, Darcy decided to just cut straight to the point. "Are you watching your TV?"

"No." Loki raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Because I'm going to hijack it." Darcy barged past him – part of her mind knowing this wasn't a bright idea while the other part of her mind nagging her that the movie was starting in possibly less than a minute – and made her way over to the couch, where she found a copy of _Great Expectations_ upturned. She carefully placed it on the coffee table before seating herself down on the couch and picking up the remote; she switched the TV on and began to flick through the channels.

Loki just watched her from his position by the door, rather surprised by her courage; he'd always assumed that the Lewis girl was somewhat afraid of him. She'd always kept her distance from him, anyway. But here she was, barging into his living space and "hijacking" – as she called it – his TV. Even the other Avengers were wearing of stepping inside _invited_. With a sigh, knowing his night was _not_ going to be peaceful, Loki shut the door and made his way over to the couch.

"Two questions," he began. "Why not watch _your_ television, and why not "hijack" someone else's?"

"Mine's bust," said Darcy. She found the right channel just as the Universal logo was appearing on the screen. _Just in time_. "And the others are being spoil sports and won't let me use theirs. I've been looking forwards to this movie and I'm not gonna let anything stand in my way of watching it. God of Mischief included." She placed the can of soda on the coffee table and balanced the popcorn in her lap.

_Am I really going to allow myself to be ordered around by a mere mortal?_ Loki went to open his mouth and order her out – it was all he really _could_ do, as Thor wouldn't be happy if he hurt his brother's _dear little friend_ – but then his green eyes saw what was happening on the screen; a full moon had appeared, with a wolf howling in the background, and as the camera lowered it showed a spooky setting in the almost pitch black. "What is this so called movie, anyway?"

"_Casper,_" said Darcy. "It was made in the nineties; the coolest decade ever. It's about this friendly ghost who meets and falls in love with this other girl-"

"So it's one of those sappy love stories Thor's woman watches and bawls her eyes over?"

Darcy scoffed. "Far from it. The love is only one sided – _mostly_, anyway – and it's more about their friendship. Oh, and it has all this other crap in it as well; a whiny rich bitch with an attitude problem, freaking _Eric Idle_, freaking _Bill Pullman_, and three trickster ghosts who can give you a run for your money."

_Say what now?_ Loki's interest was peaked as he took a seat next to her, watching two boys arrive outside a spooky manor house and venture inside.

Most of the movie was spent sat in silence, apart from Darcy's giggling – and sometimes roars of laughter. Mostly when it involved the three ghosts known as _The Ghostly Trio_. Darcy had been right in calling them tricksters; they really _were_. And although Loki didn't laugh, he _did_ find them grudgingly amusing, particularly when they made various pop culture references which he understood thanks to his research.

When the movie was over, Darcy found that her bowl of popcorn had been placed in between them – and that they had been _sharing_ it. _When did that happen?_ She just shrugged it off and picked up the now empty bowl, ready to leave.

"What _are_ ghosts, anyway?"

Darcy was startled by the sudden question, and when she turned to look at Loki, she was even more startled to find that his expression showed genuine interest. Thinking over the question, she figured that being a God, Loki probably wasn't familiar with the term 'ghosts'. Immortals couldn't die, after all. "Well, there's theories that when us "mortals" die, our spirits either cross over to this other place or – as the movie said – if we have some kind of messed up business we need to take care of, our spirits stay behind. That's a theory, anyway. Other people believe in reincarnation, some believe in going to Hell or Heaven. Some people think nothing happens, and we just...cease to exist. I myself prefer the ghost theory; it sounds a lot more fun. Reincarnation could be cool if we became some kind of rad animal in the next life, but you could also end up a fly. I'm not a Hell/Heaven person, and the idea of nothing happening is just scary."

Loki thought about this. "And you wonder why us immortals look down on you. You all worry about those things while we don't have to."

"Yeah, well good for you. But I don't care, so you can gloat about it to someone who'll listen."

He rolled his eyes. "So this Trio..."

"The Ghostly Trio," Darcy corrected him. "They're like Jackie Chan, Robin Hood and the Ghost of Christmas Present, only with more _you_ thrown into the mix. What about them?"

"Why did they go so far as to try and kill this Doctor fellow? To me they only seemed to be harmless mischief makers."

Darcy raised an eyebrow at his curiosity, but answered his question nonetheless. "Well, ghosts are known for haunting. Moving things around, making weird noises, scaring the crap out of people... Things like that. Some ghosts can be dangerous, but I don't watch freak movies like that. But I guess they tried to because... Well, they're ghosts. Death really isn't something that concerns them, and they're unaware how much of a big deal it is to _living_ people. I think they made the realization, though; they did get her mum back, and they scared off Little Miss Bitch and Jerk Jock."

Loki raised an eyebrow almost in the same manner as Darcy did. _I'll never understand mortal "slang"_. "I still thought it was crossing the line. Even _I_ wouldn't do that."

"What did _you_ do, then?" the young woman asked. "_You're_ the God of freaking Mischief."

"Mostly harmless pranks," said Loki. "They never had an everlasting effect. Most would just laugh them off, or just ignore me. They never got out of hand, until..."

"Until you got Thor banished."

He looked directly at her and their eyes met. "That was an accident."

"I know, and he knows it too," said Darcy. "You were doing it for his own good."

"And for the good of Asgard," Loki insisted. "You should have seen him before; he was arrogant. I saved Asgard a massive headache."

"So what were you planning to achieve from it, then?"

"I was trying to get our...his father," Darcy noticed the pain in his eyes when he corrected himself, "to see that Thor wasn't ready. Once he saw it, I hoped he would try and re-drill his teachings into Thor's head. Make him into more of a king."

"So you didn't want to be king?"

"I may have been envious of Thor, but I only wanted to be his equal, and his equal only," Loki replied. "Thor was the eldest, after all, so the throne was rightfully his." Only then did he realize just what he was saying, and who he was saying it too. "I think you should be going now."

"OK." Darcy got to her feet and let herself out, glancing behind her to see Loki pick up his book again and settle himself down as if nothing had happened. "And while I remember, I'll link you to some episodes of the cartoon series which followed the movie. They're very hard to find, so there won't be many." And then she closed the door before he could answer.

That's when it hit her. None of the other agents had been able to get anything out of Loki in the months that he'd been there – while she had been able to do it by simply getting him to watch a movie.

_I wonder..._ When she arrived back in her living space she walked straight over to her case of DVDs and smirked. _This could work_.


	2. Night Two: Home Alone

Random note: Why does the new Doc editor look weird with the writing so small?

Ahem. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far! I really appreciate them, so keep them coming! :D

I hope you all like this next chapter.

* * *

Her eyes focussed upon the man sat at the small desk, Darcy questioned what she was doing.

The night before had gone unnoticed. No one saw her leave Loki's living space, and no one questioned whether or not she was able to see her movie. And Darcy wanted to keep it that way; she didn't want the others knowing about her plan, at least not yet. It was small, but it was also dangerous if Loki found out about it.

The former villain was staring intently at his laptop screen, headphones in. Each member of the team had received a laptop as per requirement when they first moved into Stark Tower, and Loki had used his to research the world he was now forced to call home. He may have hated Earth, but he figured he at least needed to know about it. Most of his days were spent sat at the small desk in the lobby leading to the individual living areas, no one disturbing him as he ate up any information he came across.

Darcy, who was sat at her own laptop on the nearby couch, bit her lip nervously as she debated what to do. She couldn't just waltz into his room like she did the night before; the movie had been shown on the actual TV. The next movie, though, was on a DVD; Loki could easily tell her to watch it another time, once her own TV was fixed (she briefly wondered when Tony would get round to that, but he was busy with the latest mission which had been assigned to the team by Fury).

Sighing, Darcy rose from her seat and walked over to the fridge Tony had installed into the lobby, should any member of the team (namely him) want to distract themselves with a drink or a bite to eat during one of their meetings. It wasn't very far away from where Loki was sat, and she had to pass him in order to reach it. But when she did, something familiar caught the corner of her eyes. A familiar cartoon...

She turned to look at Loki's screen. It showed a page about the different plant species in the States...but looking at the tabs at the top, Darcy noticed the title of one of the cartoons she had linked the former villain to. She smiled.

And just like that, her nerves of what to do vanished.

* * *

A knock.

Like the night before, Loki found himself sighing and placed down the book he had been reading, but the thought of his visitor being the Lewis girl again made him less annoyed than he had been the previous night.

He hadn't liked it when she'd barged her way in; he of course hated it when _any_ mortal did that to him. But even if he could only admit it to himself (and he had trouble even doing _that_), having someone with him was...actually kind of nice. The god was lonely, and while he mostly liked to keep it that way, sometimes he did wish he had _someone_ to spend time with, or at least talk to. And considering everyone mostly ignored him, this wasn't a privilege he could have (Thor had tried for the first few weeks to spend time with him, but had given up due to Loki continually giving him the cold shoulder).

But Darcy had come to him the night before, even if it was because he had the only working TV which was free. And he could at least admit that out of all the mortals in Stark Tower, the girl's witty sense of humour made her the most tolerable.

Loki opened the door and once again found Darcy standing there, dressed the same as the previous night, only this time she held a tub of ice cream in one hand – with _two_ spoons, he noticed – and a DVD in the other.

She looked a lot more hesitant than the night before. "I was...wondering if you wanted to watch a DVD with me? Since, you know, my TV's still bust."

"The others are still on a mission; why not use theirs?" _I can't make it look like I'm going soft on her..._

"Metal Man will kill me if I use his without his permission," Darcy explained. "And it's actually kinda rude if I just went in there without them, you know, _there_, and used their TVs. Especially if they came back." She held up the DVD. "Besides, I thought you might like this one."

The former villain read the title. "_Home Alone_?"

"It's about this kid who accidentally gets left on his own when the rest of his family go on vacation," Darcy explained. "Then these burglars try and break into the house, and the kid sets up booby traps for them. I though it'd be right up you ally."

_Bobby traps?_ He was aware of the Midgardian term, and although none of the booby traps he'd seen on a website called YouTube lived up to his standards, he couldn't deny that he was intrigued by the film. With a sigh, he stepped aside.

Darcy walked past him and made straight for the couch. "I brought some Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Cookie dough flavour. Got an extra spoon in case you wanted some."

Loki didn't reply as he just sat himself down on the couch, watching as Darcy switched the TV on and fiddled with the DVD player.

Like the night before the movie was spent in silence, mostly. Darcy laughed, and even Loki found himself chuckling at the booby traps at the end. The god couldn't help but like the main protagonist; a kid who thought himself the unfavourite in his family, who then uses his wits in order to fight back against two burglars who were really too dumb to live. And at the end of the movie, when the boy's family returned home and they all reunited, the empty void in his heart made itself known and he could barely watch.

As the credits began to roll, Darcy turned to him. "So? What did you think?"

Loki had to quickly compose himself in order to hide his moment of vulnerability. "I liked the boy. He reminds me of myself when I was his age."

An image of a kid!Loki popped into Darcy's head. "You must have been a cute kid."

A death glare silenced her. "Of course, I like him not just because of his booby traps – which even I have to admit were very well put together, by mortal standards – but because of where he fits in the family dynamic. He thinks of himself as the unfavourite, and other people seem to treat him that way – apart from his mother, at least. I was very close with my own mother."

"I know how it feels as well," said Darcy. "I grew up with five siblings; Bronte, Frainey, Luke, Harry and Tom. In their eyes, I was the dumb one. The screw up. The accident – and according to my parents, I really _was_; they weren't even _trying_ for a baby when I came along. In my family, I _always_ finished last."

"Am I supposed to feel pity for you?"

"No. I hate it when people do that." She sighed. "My point is, at least your family loves you. Your father regrets not seeing this kind of thing happening sooner, and Thor's trying to connect with you; sometimes it's downright painful to watch and see the look in his eyes when you turn your back on him. I _wish_ my siblings cared that much about me. I haven't heard from any of them since I moved out; I've only been in contact with my parents, and that's hardly ever. OK, so I was never adopted from an enemy race – if I was, I've never been told about it – but in my eyes, you've still got it better."

Loki genuinely didn't know how to reply to that – because she was right. Thor may have been a lumbering idiot most of the time, but Loki couldn't deny that the God of Thunder still loved him as his brother. And their father had been struggling in his speech – the first time Loki had ever seen the All-Father do such a thing – when he had banished Loki to Midgard. Not to mention that during the trial, Frigga hadn't been there at all; Thor had later told his brother that she couldn't bare to watch him be punished.

Darcy really _did_ have it worse than him, he realized, and watching her carefully he could see the pain in her eyes. She was trying to mask it, and was doing it well; if she were talking to a mortal, they wouldn't be able to see it at all. But he could – because he knew how to hide inner pain.

"I know it may not help, but out of all your siblings, you most likely have the better job," he told her.

Darcy smiled. "Yeah, I probably do. Bronte works in publishing, Frainey and Harry are gym teachers in Minnesota, Luke works in construction and Tom's an engineer. I, on the other hand, work for a spy organization and live with the greatest super heroes on the planet. Yeah, I totally have it over them."

Seeing her smile, Loki found himself smiling as well...but then he realized what he'd done. _Did I just go out of my way to cheer up a mortal?_ He wiped the smile from his face instantly. "Now that the movie's over-"

"Yeah, I know, I'm going." Darcy stood up and walked over to the DVD player, ejecting the disc and putting it back in its case. As she did, Loki took the empty ice cream tub – they had both polished it off during the movie; Loki actually found the flavour to be quite tasty – and put it in the bin. "There's a sequel to this film, as well," Darcy said over her shoulder.

"Really?" Loki inquired.

"There's also a third and a fourth, and recently a fifth," the girl further explained. "I haven't seen the fifth, though. Not after the disappointment of the other two."

"No good, then?"

"The third focusses on this other kid not related to Kevin at all," she replied. "I mean, I can sorta understand since Kevin's actor was probably too old to return, but they could have at least put some effort into the film. It's really not any good. The fifth film isn't about the McCallisters, either."

"And the fourth is?"

"Yeah, but they got this other boy to play Kevin, and Marv got another actor as well – another actor who looks more like Harry, who doesn't even appear. And Marv is less stupid; I guess that's because his new girlfriend is even more dumb than he ever was."

Loki raised an eyebrow. "So this second film is worth watching?"

"It's great," said Darcy, standing up to leave.

After a beat, Loki asked, "Maybe you can bring it over tomorrow night?"

Darcy paused. "Sure," she said without turning. She didn't want him to see the smirk on her face.


End file.
